New Beer's Eve
Over a hundred breweries have signed up to facilitate a night of remembrance and toast this piece of American history, the night beer came back after a thirteen year drought. Not to be confused with the repeal of prohibition on December 5th, 1933, April 7 marks the date when beer was the only legal libation in the United States.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been president barely a month, having been sworn in on March 4 after a landslide victory the previous November. Sweeping into power with him was an anti-Prohibition majority in Congress known as "the wets."
Together they fulfilled their first campaign promise with passage of the Cullen-Harrison Act, which increased the amount of alcohol allowed in beverages from 0.5 percent to a discernible 3.2 percent by weight.
Crowds gathered around breweries all over the country on "New Beer's Eve," April 6, 1933, in anticipation of the return of legal beer that actually had some alcohol in it. When the act took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET April 7, trucks and carriages burst out of brewery gates bearing cases and barrels of beer for a parched republic -- at least for the District of Columbia and the 20 states whose laws permitted it. Several breweries dispatched cases directly to the White House and the Capitol. More than 1.5 million barrels were snapped up in the first 24 hours.
During the month of April there will be special celebrations, special release beers, and general merrymaking across the country in honor of this milestone.
"People need to be reminded of the single biggest cause of brewery closure," said Daniel Bradford, former president of the Brewers' Association of America. "Prohibition lead to the demise of thousands of breweries and the creation of a violent criminal element. We need to remember this travesty, because it could happen again."
In St. Louis, Missouri, megabrewer Anheuser-Busch is throwing a big bash, celebrating the historic anniversary with a gathering commemorating the events of April 7, 1933, including the introduction of the Budweiser Clydesdales and the re-broadcast of August A. Busch, Jr.’s national radio address from the steps of the Budweiser brewery’s Bevo bottling plant.
In Chicago, Louis Glunz Beer, Inc., the first Schlitz distributor in Chicago, recreates horse-drawn wagon deliveries of the first coveted cases of Schlitz "Classic 1960s Formula" to select locations on April 7, including one of the few remaining old Schlitz tied-houses, Schubas' Tavern at Southport & Belmont in Chicago, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Highlights include a celebratory toast to 75 years of legal beer in America with classic Schlitz, based on the original recipe and packaged in traditional "Brown Glass" longneck bottles.
Check out how breweries are celebrating in your area by visiting 75YearsOfBeer.org
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